Here's another take on the gloabl economy, this time from the OECD.
The momentum of the recovery projected in our Spring Economic Outlook has been only marginally dented by higher-than-assumed oil prices. By and large, the recovery continues to unfold as foreseen, with real GDP set to expand by around 3½ per cent in 2004 on a year-average basis in the six largest OECD economies as a group – somewhat weaker in the United States and somewhat stronger in the euro area and Japan than what had been projected in Spring. Rising energy prices have also exerted upward pressure on headline inflation but their pass-through into core inflation and wages is limited...
I'm not sure I want to endorse all the storytelling in the report, but it does have lots of cool pictures.